Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday morning that “I think there is a> 0% chance that Tesla will be the largest company” and added “probably in a few months” to the responses to the followers.
Musk’s tweet, which provides guidance on the timing of an anticipated increase in Tesla’s market capitalization, has since been deleted, but screenshots have been shared on Twitter.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has faced Musk and Tesla over its unrestricted use of Twitter by CEOs.
In the third quarter of 2018, Musk faced accusations of securities fraud from the SEC, after sending tens of millions of followers on Twitter when he intended to take Tesla private with $ 420 per share and obtained funding to do so. Tesla stock prices rose by more than 6% that day.
Musk and Tesla entered into a settlement agreement, with the CEO and company each paying a $ 20 million fine and agreeing not to plead not guilty, among other terms.
However, the SEC sued him for violating the agreement after sending a tweet about Tesla’s production numbers in early 2019, which they said was a violation of the terms.
As a term of the revised settlement agreement, Tesla is required to approve all written communications, including tweets and other social media posts, Musk intends to share with material information about the company. The company has never said publicly who holds the role known, in language, as “twitter sitter” of Elon Musk.
More recently, a Tesla shareholder named Chase Gharrity filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court for Musk’s continued use of Twitter, saying it cost shareholders billions of dollars in losses, for example, when he wrote on Twitter in May 2020 that Tesla’s share price is too high in his opinion. Tesla shares fell 10 percent thereafter, representing a $ 13 billion drop in Tesla’s market value.
Musk also commented on the price of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, via tweets from his account, which currently has 49.7 million followers.
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Council decided and ordered Tesla to instruct Musk to remove previous tweets that the federal agency considered were threatening employees. The company and Musk have time to comply with the order, but the infringing material has not yet been removed from Twitter.
The SEC and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.